Broke Living

⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. – 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

In David Chang’s exceptionally vulnerable memoir Eat a Peach, he writes much about weakness. As an iconoclast chef, Chang has much to boast about. Famous friends, world renowned restaurants, a few Netflix shows, etc. Yet, what I love is how much of his book is spent on what many would consider weakness. He writes openly about depression, his bi-polar challenges, as well as his anger. While many of us would love to celebrate our accomplishments, it is our shortcomings which connect us to others. However, when we hide them, we put barriers between us and a world struggling toward vulnerability. The truth is, we love the broken because they remind us of ourselves. The more accomplished they are, despite or maybe because of their weakness, the more hope we gain. Chang learned that in his many restaurants, the more opportunity he gave for critique, the better their team and business became.

I try to write a lot about terms like “brokenness” and “weakness” because I think these to be bedrocks to any great story. How many of us have been duked into defining our lives by productivity and perfection? If humility is to be the higher goal of any faith, then why would we not celebrate in the weakness that makes it possible?

Blindspots thrive in darkness

If you want to make a matter worse, ignore it. Much like the check engine light on a car, our souls will eventually crumble under the expectations of life. However, when we can shine just a little light into our blindspot, no matter if we ever get “better”, something transformative happens within us. We start to live in freedom as we cast off expectations. In fact, if we want to strive toward some sort of resolution of our weakness, then the solution is only found deeper within the darkness.

Chances are, they already know

The quote goes that you can “fool some of the people some of the time“, but can never “fool all of the people all of the time“. Because we are all generally in the same battered boat of life, it is pretty easy for us to identify brokenness in others. We all waste a considerable amount of energy hiding what we label as our deficiencies to the world. How much rest could we find if we did the opposite? How many deeper connections could we find with others if we celebrated vulnerability? Odds are, those around us are already well aware of our struggles. Some even choose to love us despite them.

What are your favorite stories? I would guess, like the work of David Chang, they are filled with those who express their humanity boldly instead of trying to hide them.

What would the tone of your memoir be?